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France's May Day march turns into political arena ahead of EU election
Many left-wing contenders didn’t miss the opportunity to attend the traditional May Day protest in Paris, while the far-right politician Jordan Bardella, currently leading the polls, announced the rest of his candidate list in southwestern France.
The usual chants for higher salaries and equal pay echoed across the streets of Paris this Wednesday during the traditional May Day labour rights march.
Ten of thousands of protestors took to the streets of the French capital against a backdrop of new demands such as peace in Gaza and against the upcoming Paris Olympic Games.
But with less than six weeks left before the European elections on 9 June, the event turned into a highly political one.
Many left-wing candidates didn’t miss the opportunity to present their campaign, all vying for attention.
Representing the Communist party for the EU elections, Léon Deffontaine, the 28-year-old candidate is focusing his campaign on energy bills — a topic that catalysed numerous protests in France and Europe since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“The first measure I want to put in place is to take France out of the European electricity market to reduce energy bills. Today, we’re paying far more than the price we pay to produce electricity,” he told Euronews.
Others emphasised the importance of protesting the rise of the far-right, currently leading the polls, represented by Jordan Bardella of the Rassemblement National party (RN).
“May 1st is also an opportunity to remember that we must always fight against these anti-democratic, anti-republican parties that unfortunately swarm our country,” said Marie Toussaint, leader of the Green Party for the 9 June elections.
According to a poll by IPSOS ordered by Euronews, Macron’s centrist alliance Renaissance is lagging by 15 points behind Bardella’s party.
Meanwhile, in the southwestern city of Perpignan, Jordan Bardella gathered more than 2,000 people to announce his party’s first 35 candidates for the elections.
These include candidates such as Fabrice Leggeri, ex-boss of Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency.
End of April, two NGOs filed a civil complaint against Leggeri accusing him of being complicit in crimes against humanity for enabling ‘pushback’ of boats full of illegal migrants between 2015 and 2022.
Bardella’s move was highly criticised by left-wing parties, claiming the far-right politician was taking away the attention from worker’s issues.
“Taking advantage of May 1st to launch a campaign shows that he couldn’t care less about French workers,” reacted Léon Deffontaines, the Communist candidate.
In Saint-Etienne (near Lyon), the head of the socialist party, Raphaël Glucksmann, was prevented from joining the march.
Multiple protesters threw paint and eggs at the EU election candidate, currently third in the polls after the far-right and Marcon’s centrist alliance.
In total, about 121,000 people marched across France according to the Ministry of the Interior, while the main labour union CGT claimed “more than 210,000” participated in the marches in the country.
The United States and China will discuss guardrails on artificial intelligence, including establishing a protocol for keeping powerful A.I. models out of the hands of nonstate actors, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday.
Mr. Bessent, who was speaking from Beijing in an interview with CNBC, did not give more details, including when these discussions would take place. But Xi Jinping, China’s leader, and President Trump had been expected to discuss A.I. during their summit in the Chinese capital.
If these talks happen, it would be the first time the two countries formally take up the issue during Mr. Trump’s second term. The capabilities and usage of A.I. have grown rapidly, and so have concerns that this technology could be weaponized by hackers and terrorists, or spiral out of human control.
“The two A.I. superpowers are going to start talking,” Mr. Bessent said. “We’re going to set up a protocol in terms of, how do we go forward with best practices for A.I. to make sure nonstate actors don’t get ahold of these models.”
Still, Mr. Bessent made clear that the fierce competition between the United States and China for supremacy in A.I. — which has been a major hurdle to cooperation on safety — remained front of mind for U.S. policymakers. Officials and experts in both countries have argued that they cannot slow technological development and risk losing out to their rivals.
Mr. Bessent said that the United States was willing to cooperate with China on A.I. safety because “the Chinese are substantially behind us” in terms of the technology’s development.
“I do not think we would be having the same discussions if they were this far ahead of us. So we’re going to put in U.S. best practices, U.S. values, on this, and then roll those out to the world,” Mr. Bessent said.
Experts have suggested that China’s A.I. models may be a few months behind the leading U.S. models.
Another hurdle to the United States and China working together on A.I. safety is that they have generally focused on different potential threats.
American experts have generally highlighted existential risks, such as the possibility of artificial general intelligence, or super-intelligence that exceeds that of humans. Chinese researchers and officials have more often highlighted risks related to social stability and information control, such as the possibility of chatbots producing content that challenges China’s leadership and policies.
Still, researchers in both countries have highlighted some shared risks, such as the possibility of A.I. being used to develop new biological weapons.
Ship SEIZED near UAE coast, UK military says
Iranian forces seized a vessel 38 nautical miles off the UAE coast early Thursday, a brazen provocation occurring just as President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met in Beijing discussing key issues like the Strait of Hormuz.
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A ship was seized off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) near the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday morning, the British military reported.
The ship was boarded and “taken by unauthorized personnel” while it was roughly 38 nautical miles northeast of the United Arab Emirates’ oil export terminal Fujairah, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported Thursday.
UKMTO spotted the ship heading toward Iranian territorial waters after the seizure, it reported Thursday.
British authorities did not release information on who the ship belonged to or who seized it. Despite the lack of official corroboration, the BBC reported that the Honduras-flagged Hui Chuan was seized in the Strait on Thursday.
CARGO SHIP ATTACKED BY SMALL CRAFT NEAR STRAIT OF HORMUZ, UK MARITIME AGENCY SAYS
Ships are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on May 4. A report on May 15 said a ship was seized off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and is being brought toward Iranian waters. (Amirhossein Khorgooei/ISNA/AFP)
Citing the risk-management company Vanguard, the BBC reported that the ship’s operators told Vanguard that the Hui Chuan was operating as a “floating armory” for ships in the Strait to defend themselves from pirates.
A container ship sits at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, as a motorboat passes in the foreground on May 2, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
At least two other ships have already been seized in the Strait of Hormuz since February.
IRAN SAYS ITS SMALL SUBS DEPLOYED TO STRAIT OF HORMUZ AS EXPERT EXPLAINS THREAT: ‘VULNERABLE TO DETECTION’
A cargo ship sails in the Persian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz on April 22, 2026. (AP Photo)
In April, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized the Panamanian-flagged MSC Francesca and the Epaminondes ships in the Strait.
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Fox News Digital contacted UKMTO and Vanguard for further information but did not immediately receive a response.
Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rapalo reports from Washington, where the first of two days of US-mediated ambassador-level talks between Israel and Lebanon concluded on Thursday. A ceasefire between them expires on Sunday, though Israel has killed 512 Lebanese since its implementation on April 17.
Published On 15 May 2026
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